Irene

Holy Martyr Irene was a girl of only twelve from the village of Thermi on the island of Lesbos, the daughter of Basil, a leading man of the village. She was born in 1451 and suffered in 1463, with the saints Raphael and Nicholas.

The pagans cut off one of her hands, then put her in a large jar and burned her, before the eyes of her parents, who wept for her in grief. With her died her father Basil, her mother Maria, their five-⁠year-⁠old son Raphael, their niece Helen, the teacher Theodore and the physician Alexander. Their bones were found near the tombs of the saints, in separate graves.

Irene's relics are kept at the Monastery of Saint Raphael at Thermi, on Lesbos. She is commemorated on the Tuesday of Bright Week, together with Raphael and Nicholas. Their existence became known through appearances and visions beginning in 1959.